From TV to film, you’re bound to recognize some of your favorite performers in the Celebrity Shorts Programme – a group of 8 shorts involving celebrities, many of whom are playing themselves or riffing on their own personal characteristics.

Judi Dench and Penny Ryder carry on the way teenagers do in Friend Request Pending (12 min), a funny sketch that sees Dench playing a woman at her laptop who simply can’t wait for a man she knows to reply to her friend request on Facebook. Don’t blink or you might miss Tom Hiddleston‘s cameo (the baddie from Avengers).

The Carrier (18 min) has the feel of nighttime drama with Rita Wilson (It’s Complicated) playing the mother to recently deceased son Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill) in this tragic drama about how the mother visits with those closest to him in order to share a grim discovery about him that he kept secret or didn’t know about himself in life.

David Duchovny is the voice of an animated polar bear riffing on fame and its corrupting influences in The Beaufort Diaries (4 min), a slick and sharply observed monologue.

The Voorman Problem (13 min) is a perfect short just this side of Ray Bradbury or the Twilight Zone with shrink Martin Freeman (The Office) enlisted to examine the psyche of maximum security prisoner Tom Hollander (Pirates of the Caribbean), who sets out to prove that he is God. Ingenious and entertaining.

Charlotte Rampling stars in The End (17 min), another very well written piece that considers a film industry so desperate for good stories that they digitally remove actors from films of decades past and replace them with the hot young things of today so that they may appear in good movies, too. Rampling’s riff on her own tough persona here is magnificent and very funny.

Butterflies (2 min) is a tremendous micro-short from Sandro Miller, starring John Malkovich in a stop-motion animation piece where he rants about the dangers of television.

Blitzen Trapper Massacre (7 min) follows Rainn Wilson (The Office), number one fan of the Portland country/folk quintet who gets to meet them but who is rejected from their company with his rough edges and poor taste in humor. Very funny.

Michael Fassbender (Shame) and Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones) star in Pitch Black Heist (13 min), a glorious black and white caper about a couple of bank robbers as they plan an upcoming heist. Good acting here barely overcomes a fairly paint-by-numbers story.

- Moviejay

Check out our coverage of the WorldWide Short Film Festival:

- Douglas Breaks Down The ‘X-Ray Spex’ Programme
- MovieJay Reviews The ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’ Programme
- Now Onto The ‘Homeland Security’ Programme
- Xavierpop Takes On The ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ Programme
- MovieJay Reviews The “All Tomorrow’s Parties” Programme
- Douglas Godhino Reviews The ‘Superfans’ Programme
- Xavierpop Takes on The “Creative Control” Programme
- MovieJay Reviews the “War, What Is It Good For?” Programme
- MovieJay Reviews ‘The Family Compact” Programme
- Next Up A Look At the ‘Iron Ladies’ Programme
- Xavierpop Covers ‘The Love Hurts’ Official Selection
- A Break-Down The ‘Who’s Your Dada?’ Programme
- MovieJay Reviews The Opening Night Gala: Winners From Around the World
- The @xvrpop Ultimate Worldwide Short Film Fest Preview
- The CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival’s Screenplay $50,000 Giveaway is Back!